Official Journal October 2015

Article 85

EUROPEAN PATENT OFFICE

Information from the EPO

Validation of European patents in the Republic of Moldova (MD) with effect from 1 November 2015

1. On 16 October 2013, the President of the European Patent Office and the Director General of the State Agency on Intellectual Property of the Republic of Moldova signed an agreement on the validation of European patents (validation agreement). On 30 July 2015, the parliament of the Republic of Moldova adopted Law No. 160 amending and supplementing Law No. 50-XVI of 7 March 2008 on the Protection of Inventions. These changes to the country's industrial property legislation have created the legal basis necessary for the validation system to operate.

2. This agreement enters into force on 1 November 2015. From that date it will be possible to validate European patent applications and patents in the Republic of Moldova, where, after validation, they will confer essentially the same protection as patents granted by the EPO for the now 38 member states of the European Patent Organisation.

3. Validation in the Republic of Moldova is mainly governed by Articles 441 to 443 of the country's Law on the Protection of Inventions, as amended and supplemented.

4. Validation in the Republic of Moldova occurs at the applicant's request.

4.1 Validation for the Republic of Moldova is deemed requested for any European or international application filed on or after 1 November 2015. It is not available for applications filed prior to that date, or for any European patents resulting from such applications.

4.2 The validation fee is EUR 200.[ 1 ] It must be paid to the EPO within six months of the date on which the European Patent Bulletin mentions the publication of the European search report, or, where applicable, within the period for performing the acts required for an international application's entry into the European phase.

4.3 After expiry of the relevant basic time limit, the validation fee can still be validly paid within a two-month grace period, provided that within that period a surcharge of 50% is also paid.[ 2 ] If the designation fee has not been paid and further processing is available, the validation fee can still be paid along with the further processing concerning the designation fee. If the validation fee is not paid in due time, the request for validation is deemed withdrawn.[ 3 ]

5. A reference to the Republic of Moldova as a validation state will be included in the request for grant form (EPA/EPO/OEB 1001) and the form for entry into the European phase (EPA/EPO/OEB 1200). The updated versions of the forms will be available on the EPO website as of 1 November 2015.

6. Further information about validating European patent applications and patents in the Republic of Moldova will be published shortly in the EPO's Official Journal and then incorporated into its brochure on "National law relating to the EPC".[ 4 ]

[ 1 ] The code for the validation fee for the Republic of Moldova (MD) is 421.

[ 2 ] The code for the surcharge on the validation fee for the Republic of Moldova (MD) is 451.

[ 3 ] See the notice from the European Patent Office dated 5 February 2015 concerning the time limits for paying validation fees, OJ EPO 2015, A19.